HELP!!! with water bowl and chicks

[flewdacoop]

i have a water bowl and it in my chicks cage. the heat lamp heats it up so i change it out often but i have pine shavings for the flooring and the chicks keep kicking up the shaving into the water what do i do.. here is a pic of the water bottle i have. and i have already cut a piece of board out for it to sit on but its still getting full of pine shavings

 

[chickenbythesea]

welcome to the world of chicks.

I had the same waterer in with mine and I had to remove shavings many times a day. Chicks love to kick up their bedding and it always seems to get into the waterer. Once they get bigger and you have a larger waterer with a larger lip it isn't as much of a problem. Good thing is, you'll out grow this waterer in a couple of weeks.

 

[lareynadenada]

Oh yeah the same with me LOL

 

[flewdacoop]

i cant wait.. its almost as bad as my dogs..

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

That's one of the reasons I used paper towels on the bottom of the brooder longer than many folks do. I did have to remove the paper towels every day or two, but at least I wasn't cleaning out the water every few hours.

That and the fact that it seems like 50% of the feed gets spilled into the bedding are the two most annoying things about raising chicks. They are piggier than pigs!

 

[gardendufus]

I'm just a little concerned about your heat lamp heating up your water. Have you got your water as far away from the lamp as possible? If so, then I'd be concerned that your chicks are not able to get away from the heat of the heat lamp to cool off.

Your chicks should be able to travel in and out of the heated area in order to regulate their heat similar to how they would with a hen. The heat in your brooder should not be so much as to be heating up the water. It's a little concerning.

 

[donrae]

I'm just a little concerned about your heat lamp heating up your water. Have you got your water as far away from the lamp as possible? If so, then I'd be concerned that your chicks are not able to get away from the heat of the heat lamp to cool off.

Your chicks should be able to travel in and out of the heated area in order to regulate their heat similar to how they would with a hen. The heat in your brooder should not be so much as to be heating up the water. It's a little concerning.

This.
If your lamp is heating the water, it's cooking you chicks.


Waterers usually have to be raised up on bricks or 2x4s to keep the bedding out. Mine sit up high enough the chicks have to hop up on the brick or board to drink. Keeps the bedding out. But please back off on the heat lamp!

 

[flewdacoop]

ok when can i turn off the heat lamp. they are about 2 weeks old know and are already starting to get their feathers, but they are still in my house where it stays 70 degrees, till i can finish the big coop. i am using a infered red 250 watt heat lamp and the water is staying cooler know that i moved it away from the lamp. the chicks tend to spread out in the cage as they are sleeping and tend not to make much noise. but as soon as i turn off the heat lamp they huddle up and start chirping alot.. thanks for the advice on moving the water bottle that helped alot, and now that they found out they have wings they run around the cage flapping them at each other, but it is cute to see them up on the perch

 

[capstone]

I put my heat lamp situated just so it heats one corner of the brooder. Mine are 3 weeks now but I still have it on them but up high. It is more for the light than the heat at this point since they are in our basement.

As far as the shavings.. I have not found a fool proof way. I put only about a hand full of shavings in a day, I clean our brooder out daily mainly because I hate for them to have to sleep in poo.

The water situation is a puzzling one for me as well. I do clean it out daily as well even sitting on something they still manage to get shavings in it.

 

[gardendufus]

Well, luckily I had lots of room, so I set one of those 12" X 12" patio pavers in the brooder and put my water on it. The chicks had to jump up on the paver to get to the water. While I still occasionally got a little bit of wood chips in the water, it was little enough that I could just scoop it out with my finger. I still changed the water every day to make sure it was fresh. A couple of small pieces of 2 X 4 set side to side would accomplish the same thing.

I am glad to hear your chicks are spreading out and active. At first I was worried your brooder was so small that you were heating the whole thing up to the max. Heating just one corner so that the chicks can go to it when they want is a method many people use. I had enough room to give them almost the entire coop with a heat lamp in just one corner. It will be harder when I try to bring in my next batch as I will have to confine them a little more. Do your chicks EVER go directly under the lamp to stay for awhile? I used the same kind of lamp you are, but I know a lot of people use much smaller bulbs. If you do a search you can probably find several threads where they discuss it.

I would think that at 3 weeks you could probably eliminate the heat lamp. Just my opinion. At that age I only used the heat lamp at night and that was in March in Colorado, in temps varying from the 20's to the 50's. The birds were fine.